Keith Urban: torch and twang's unlikely troubador is rewriting the rules of the country club

ELTON JOHN: So, mate, I've heard five of the tracks from your new album that you were kind enough to send me, and it sounds really fantastic. There are a few I'd like to have played on, I can tell you that. Some of them seem specifically to be about Nicole [Kidman, Urban's wife].

KEITH URBAN: They certainly came during the period we've been together. I wrote "Once in a Lifetime," the day after the Oscars. [laughs] We had one of those evenings afterward, where I think we were struggling with a bit of "Are we doing the right thing?" And the next day, in the moment of reaffirming my commitment and my intentions, I think that's what was weighing heavily on my heart.

EJ: I'm not an A&R guy, but I would think that could be a single.

KU: Actually, it's just come out.

EJ: Well, there you go. And what was the radio reaction?

KU: It's been extraordinary.

EJ: What's the new album called?

KU: Right now it's Love, Pain, and the Whole Damn Thing. It comes out November 7.

EJ: This is the first album since Be Here, which came out in 2004, has now sold over three million copies in America, and shows no signs of going away. You must be proud. You're an Australian boy who is now one of the biggest country stars in the world--that could probably never have happened a few years ago.

KU: I think you're right, mate. It certainly didn't happen quickly for me though. I've been in Nashville for 14 years. It was difficult at first.

EJ: Why is that, do you think? Did the fact that you are Australian make it hard for you to be accepted?

KU: Well, it didn't make it easy. I think the first handful of years I wasn't really getting genuine support. It was just people sort of--

EJ: Talking the talk but not walking the walk.

KU: Pretty much, yeah. [laughs] But thankfully, I didn't know that, so I had this wonderful blind side that helped me persevere.

EJ: I read an interview in which you said that since you were young, Nashville was where you wanted to end up. Readers of Interview might not know that country music has always been big in Australia, starting with Slim Dusty who was probably the pioneer of it all--I would say he's the grandfather of Australian country music. There have been so many other people in Australia who have flown the flag, but you're the number one person who's actually come over to Nashville and done it. How did it feel?

KU: Exhausting.

EJ: [laughs] That's a great answer. From the tracks I've heard on this album it seems your music is crossing over into rock.

KU: One of my writers, Monty Powell, and I were talking about records, like your album Tumbleweed Connection [1971], which if they were released today, would probably be released as country. There were a lot of those tunes that I grew up with that weren't country, but it was inherent in what I was listening to.

EJ: Well, look at the Rolling Stones. They've always loved country music. There's always been at least one country song on a Rolling Stones album, and sometimes three or four.

KU: Yeah. And Creedence Clearwater Revival was another great example. If "Down on the Corner" or "Lookin' Out My Back Door" came out today, they'd both be considered country.

EJ: Well, people nowadays pigeonhole music. When I first came to America in the late '60s, early '70s, everybody listened to everything. I feel now that things are put into little boxes--"black music," "R&B," "hip-hop," "country," "pop," "AOR." It's really boring. I think what you and a few of your peers are doing with country music is trying to raise the bar a bit and bring in other sorts of music. Country is responsible for the birth of rock 'n' roll. It has a lot of gospel in it, a lot of soul music in it, so it's ridiculous just to pigeonhole it as country.

KU: Yes. And country, of course, is quite a diverse genre within itself, and one that's obviously growing and evolving like rock 'n' roll has done within the last fifty years. I think the iPod shuffle is one of the best things invented. The fact that you can throw on your whole record collection and have the songs coming at you randomly is helping people break all those boxes and just enjoy an incredible diversity of music.

EJ: Well, all of the five tracks you sent me are different from each other. Do you sit down and write a song as a song? Or do you have a country thing in mind when you write?

KU: No. I just write. But I think there's an inherent countryism in the bulk of what I do.

EJ: Has that always been the case?

KU: Yeah, I think so. I never wanted to be a rock 'n' roller. Rock 'n' roll to me is more like Creedence Clearwater or John Mellencamp or someone that has a strong rootsiness about them.

EJ: On what you've written so far for this album and what you did on Be Here, your rock 'n' roll roots are coming through, though. It's like Elvis Presley did rock 'n' roll--with a country feel.

KU: Well, I guess that brings us back to our initial point--that it all carne from the same seed. It's all Southern music to me.